Impact

Yesterday I was serving about 4 tables at once. I despised one table, two of the others were alright and one table (with two young women, maybe late 20's) made my night so much better.

I'd never seen either of them before but they were so bubbly and happy and made a point to make conversation with me (which is always appreciated as a server.) They asked me how my night was going, asked me what kind of lipgloss I was wearing because they thought it was amazing and then they proceeded to tell me that they thought I was nice looking.

I may never see these girls again in my life but they effected me last night. That was so unnecessarily nice of them to make the effort to talk to me, to compliment me, to make me feel good.

Little acts of kindness are so rare in this day and age. They should be treasured. Holding the door open for a stranger, helping someone pick up something they dropped, offering directions to someone lost, sincerely asking how someone is feeling... smiling.

This can be a cold world and you can walk through it aimlessly in a fog for days. And then... there it is. Something, someone to bring you back and make you smile.

The thing about these little encounters is that often people do not even know they're affecting or even impacting this person.

I'm sure many of us have held doors open, smiled, offered assistance to people... and who knows? Maybe you impacted that person. Maybe they were lost. Maybe they were in a fog. Maybe you really helped them in more ways you thought you did.

By the end of their meal, the two girls thanked me for such nice service and within earshot from me briefly discussed amongst themselves how they're happy they told me they liked my lipgloss.

"Well, everyone she served tonight was probably looking at her lips and thinking they're gorgeous and sparkly and I bet no one said anything. Now, at least she knows that people admire them!" one girl said to the other.

Impact.

They didn't have to say anything. They didn't have to smile or ask how my day was going. They didn't know I was having a rough day. They didn't expect a free meal or discount out of it. They didn't think I'd be writing about them in my blog the next day.

But they did it anyway.

I'm grateful for their impact. It is treasured.

I Believe

It's so easy to be cynical in this world.

People can walk around with hatred, jealousy, scepticism, doubt for days, weeks, months even years.

Maybe you'd experienced too many heart-breaks, let-downs, pit-falls... It's so easy to give up on it all. It is so easy to write everything off and say you're done with it all. Done with an old friend. Done with having faith, keeping faith. Done with love. Done with putting yourself out there.

Maybe I was skeptical. I know I was cynical about certain ideals for a while there. But I'm done with that now. Be who you want to be. Believe what you want.

If you think something can happen make it happen. If you want to put all of your feelings out there for someone or for yourself or for whoever just do it.

I went through a period of doubt where I thought that certain things in life were just impossible or fake or unachievable. How could I have felt so many pleasant feelings at one point in the past and have them suddenly stop dead in their tracks? After this happened I briefly decided that certain things were temporary. Nothing could last forever. I became an ice woman.

This wasn't me though. I'm not cold. I'm not emotionless. I do have feelings and I want to feel again. I shut out a lot of feelings and maybe hurt some people along the way and for that I'm sorry. I truly believe that to live fully you have to act on your emotions. I tried convincing myself of certain things but now those walls are down.

Be passionate.

Be spontaneous.

Be miraculous.

Feel.

Show your true self.

Say what you want.

Love.

Life is so short. To quote one of my favourite movies, Now and Then: "Well Samantha... Things will happen in your life that you can't stop... But that's no reason to shut out the world... There's a purpose for the good and for the bad... "

Sure, wearing your heart on your sleeve and truly believing in things may seem foolish to some people. Maybe dangerous. Maybe dumb. But I'm back to me now. And I don't think it's foolish. Or dangerous. Or dumb. I think it's brave. And courageous. And romantic.

This believer is back.

Thank you =)